The War Within Talents
Holy Paladin's current talent tree has brought so many different playstyles and builds to life it can seem overwhelming, so let's take a step back and talk about each of our talent options and when/why we would take them. Once you know the basics, we'll discuss the most powerful meta builds.
Class Tree Talents
First Talents
Strike an enemy dealing damage and generating 1 Holy Power
Value: Required
As one of our few Holy Power generating abilities and the quickest way to access Greater Judgment, there is no build that shouldn't run this.
Cleanse also removes all Disease and Poison effects
Value: Situational
This is one of our most situationally strong talent choices as it's only useful if the encounter or dungeon you're doing has Diseases or Poisons.
Lay on Hands grants 30% armor and ignores healing reduction
Value: Medium
This talent gives a relatively small amount of value in most cases, but can situationally be very impactful. When used on a tank this will provide them with significant DR from physical attacks after Lay on Hands is used, which will help stabilize them after the heal.
Reduces Hammer of Justice's cooldown by 15 sec
Value: Medium
Fist of Justice is a decent pickup in Mythic+, giving us more frequent single target stuns which has become increasingly important since the change to AoE stops Blizzard implemented in The War Within Beta (mobs now recast after being stopped).
Incapacitate an enemy for 1 minute / Blind all enemies within 10 yards for 6 seconds
Value: Situational / High
This node should generally be avoided in raid as they're mostly useless except in very rare circumstances. For Mythic+, Repentance is a situationally useful ability that can be taken when your group lacks hard CC, but seeing as most comps in modern WoW have significant sources of hard CC you should rarely need to pick this up. Blinding Light should always be your default choice in this node, but keep in mind that after the changes to AoE stops in The War Within beta (mobs now recast after being stopped), you should be using this ability more as an emergency stop rather than a priority.
Fear an Undead, Aberration, or Demon for up to 40 seconds
Value: Situational
Turn Evil used to be a pretty interesting talent, but with the removal of the Incorporeal affix and the execute mechanic being useless on any real M+ mobs, you'll only ever want to pick this up in a dungeon where CCing an undead, aberration, or Demon would be useful (like CCing the spawned mages in Necrotic Wake).
Cleanse heals an ally for a small amount
Value: Low
This is incredibly undertuned and thus a relatively useless talent, although this tree has a lot of that so expect to see more descriptions like this.
After you spend 20 Holy Power, your next WoG heals another ally at 30% power
Value: Medium
Afterimage is a decent way to increase your spot healing by making your WoGs sometimes echo to nearby allies. It's not a great talent, but it's also not bad which means it'll still be played in most builds.
Repentance and Blinding Light's cooldowns are reduced by 15 sec
Value: Low
The 15s reduction on these abilities is not enough to increase their value almost at all, so this talent will likely never see play except in extremely niche situations.
Judgment prevents damage dealt by the target
Value: Required
Greater Judgment is now a core part of Holy Paladin and will do a large amount of passive healing for you, especially when it consumes Infusion of Light. It's important to remember that most of this will be tank healing and the majority of the time should not be played around as Judgment a core rotational ability.
Turn Evil is instant cast / Turn Evil now affects 6 enemies
Value: Low
Turn Evil has almost no uses in PvE except for Necrotic Wake where it's used to CC the mages spawned on the second boss (Amarth).
Reduces your Forbearance's duration by 10 sec
Value: Low
With most paladins now running Light's Revocation, this already fairly useless talent somehow is even more pointless. Never run this in any PvE build.
Divine Steed now has 2 charges
Value: High
While not quite as required as the baseline Divine Steed, this talent is as close to required as it gets for the same reasons. Modern WoW is extremely fast paced and requires frequent heavy movement, so getting a second charge of your core movement ability is very strong.
Divine Steed's cooldown is reduced by 20%, but its duration is reduced by 40%
Value: Low
This isn't a bad pickup sometimes when you want more frequent mobility but for a shorter duration, but in most cases a point here is a wasted point.
Divine Steed grants Blessing of Freedom / Grants immunity to movement impairing effects
Value: Low
As a Holy Paladin we should always default to Blessing of Freedom, as we run Echoing Blessings and also there is generally always at least one good use of Freedom per dungeon.
Middle Talents
Interrupts and prevents any spell in that school from being cast for 4 seconds
Value: Required (M+), Medium (Raid)
After years of having our interrupt stolen from us for a few expansions, we finally got it back! As a 15 second interrupt and a 4 second lockout, our interrupt is extremely strong and if used well will prevent more damage then you could imagine.
Speed and Avoidance increased by 2%
Value: Medium
As far as tier 1 talents go, this is a good pickup when doing higher end content as the 2% Avoidance becomes more impactful with higher damage taken. Below +10 keys and in heroic raid you'll be better off taking Seasoned Warhorse.
Instantly cast Holy Shock on up to 5 targets within 40 yards
Value: Required
Divine Toll is a Holy Paladin's dream button: 1 minute cooldown (45s when talented), huge party wide heal or flex for damage, and generates full Holy Power. To make the most out of this cooldown, make sure you spend all your Holy Power beforehand.
Freedom increases movement speed by 15% and Sac + BoP provide 15% damage reduction
Value: High (M+), Medium (Raid)
As a one point talent, this provides you with a lot of DR through Sac and BoP and should be run in pretty much any build. Accounting for diminishing returns, this basically turns your Blessing of Sacrifice into a ~32% DR for 12 seconds, then 15% DR for 8 seconds. It also adds DR to Blessing of Protection and movespeed to Blessing of Freedom which can be very situationally strong.
Armor increased by 6%, Stamina and Avoidance increased by 3%
Value: Required
Both the points in this talent are absolutely required as it is a huge increase to our survivability for a relatively low cost. There is no build or situation where you should ever not talent into this.
Interrupting an enemy casts an extra Crusader Strike
Value: Situational
Punishment is a pretty weak talent for Holy Paladin unless you're getting a large amount of successful interrupts off, making it a solid pickup in certain dungeons but generally useless in raid and dungeons that don't have a lot of caster mobs.
The radius of your auras is increased by 20 yds
Value: Low
This has 0 use in M+ and is only useful in raid during encounters where your raid team is super spread. In general you'll see next to no value from this in all content.
Reduces an allies damage taken by 20%, you take 100% of the damage prevented
Value: Required
As our main external cooldown, this talent is required in all content regardless of build. There are no exceptions to this unless you don't care about the survivability of your group at all and just want to play for throughput.
After casting Divine Toll, you cast 3 extra Holy Shocks / Divine Toll's cooldown is reduced by 15 sec
Value: High
While both of these talents are strong, your default in all content should generally be Quickened Invocation due to its strong synergy with our Rising Sunlight talent.
Blesses your target, granting immunity to Physical damage for 10 seconds
Value: Required
Blessing of Protection is vital to any Holy Paladin build as it immunes all Physical damage and melees. It's important to note that despite popular belief, BoP does not actually remove threat at all, it simply makes the target immune to being auto attacked. This means if your friend rips aggro on a pack and you BoP them, casters in that pack will still cast on them while mobs that melee will prioritize the second highest threat target until the BoP wears off. Check out the Mechanics to BoP section to read up on where this ability is needed.
Consecration is 15% larger and slows enemies by 50%
Value: High (M+), Low (Raid)
This is a very exciting addition to the class tree changes in 11.0.5 (that's the only time you'll hear me say that). Holy Paladins have been wanting this talent for a long time and we welcome this utility to help tanks kite or just keep mobs slowed down at all times.
Armor and critical strike chance increased by 2%
Value: High
There's not a whole lot to say about this talent, it provides significant flat stats and defensive power per talent point so there's very little reason every build should not include this. This crit is included in your "stat sheet" secondary stat percentage.
Reduces the cooldown of Sac by 15 sec / Increases damage or healing based on damage taken by Sac
Value: Situational / Value: Medium
With The War Within comes a massive nerf to Sacrifice of the Just, making it a useless talent in most cases as it only reduces the cooldown of Sac by 15 seconds. There are some extremely niche situations where that reduction may be very clutch turning this talent into a very strong one, but 95% of the time it will be useless. Recompense isn't a bad pickup now that its counterpart isn't super OP but it still likely won't see much play.
Holy Power spenders are 2% stronger / Holy Power builders have a chance to proc free spenders
Value: Medium / Value: High
Sacred Strength is a relatively low overall throughput gain talent that won't impact your gameplay at all, but also won't provide much value. On the other side of things, Divine Purpose can change the tide in a stressful situation when you may be out of holy power, it's fantastic for solo healing content and still the best option even in raid.
Reduces the cooldown of Blessing of Protection by 60 seconds
Value: Situational
Despite Blessing of Protection's strong value, it's very rare that a reduction from 5 minutes to 4 minutes would see much value in that type of ability. Only take this talent if it's for 2 very specific things that you need to use BoP on that you wouldn't otherwise be able to without it.
Final Talents
Reduces the cooldown of Divine Shield, Divine Protection, and Lay on Hands by 30%
Value: Required
Reducing the cooldown of our three most important life saving abilities by 30% is an obvious pick for any build. With this you can use Divine Shield much more frequently instead of holding just for emergencies, and Divine Protection can be used to prevent pretty much any damage intake since it becomes such a short cooldown.
Shield of the Righteous heals nearby allies
Value: Medium (M+), Low (Raid)
This talent provides a solid amount of passive healing while dpsing in Mythic+. You'll never find any use for it in raid but it's a decent pickup for keys.
Divine Steed reduces allys movement abilities by 3 sec. Your movespeed is increased by 3%
Value: Medium
Your team probably won't even notice the cooldown reduction and you certainly won't notice the movespeed but nevertheless it's a moderately decent pickup compared to the other options in this tier of talents.
Sac now removes and prevents Poison and Diseases / Auto cast Sac on an ally below 40% health
Value: Low / Low
Worth Sacrifice is a niche pickup at BEST, but more often than not will bring 0 value in the majority of situations. On the other side of things, Righteous Protection is actually so bad that running it is basically trolling. Because Blessing of Sacrifice deals damage to yourself, you should always be in control of when to use it. You also want to be using it BEFORE players take damage, not after.
Heals an ally on application and expiration of a blessing
Value: Low
The only thing that makes this talent not absolutely useless is that it works with Blessing of Seasons which is off the GCD. In general though it will provide next to no value and is mostly only taken to access the talent locked underneath it.
Allies with your Blessings have 15% increased movespeed
Value: Low
This is another completely useless talent as unlike Holy Ritual, this does NOT work with Blessing of Seasons.
Divine Protection increases healing taken by 15% for its duration
Value: Low
While this seems like a decent talent in theory, it's incredibly undertuned for Holy. A 15% healing amp is very small and will likely never impact your survivability.
Judgment causes the next 5 attacks against the target to heal the attacker
Value: Low
Judgment of Light will provide you with a decent amount of free passive healing without costing a GCD. However, its throughput won't be very noticable or impactful.
Word of Glory grants 20% bonus armor for 4.5 seconds
Value: Low
For some reason Blizzard gave us a tank talent in our class tree so it's safe to say this should never be taken for any reason.
The duration of stun effects on you is reduced by 20%
Value: Low
No idea what this is doing on our class tree, it does absolutely nothing for us in PvE.
Mastery increased by 2% and Intellect increased by 2%
Value: High
Seal of Might provides a very large boost to our healing and a moderate boost to our damage, as such there are very few builds that will not include this talent.
Your auto attacks heal a nearby ally
Value: High
This talent has been useless for a long time, but is now buffed a significant amount and only costs one talent point. It's now one of our most valuable talents in the tree and should be run in every build.
Hammer of Wrath deals increased damage to enemies below 35%
Value: Medium
Vengeful Wrath will add solid single target buffs to our arsenal and bring back some extra strength to our execute damage.
Enemies that attack you while you have Divine Protection take damage
Value: Low
This is a prot paladin talent that somehow snuck its way onto the general class tree, there's no point in ever taking it.
Consecration heals your allies / Flash of Light and Holy Light are 10% more effective on your allies and 10% of healing done also heals you
Value: Low / Low
Golden Path will be a moderate amount of passive healing in a Mythic+ group that is heavy on melee, while Selfless Healer will provide a small boost to caster Hpal builds.
When you cast 3 HP generators, you gain Dawn. When you consume Dawn, you gain Dusk
Value: High
Of Dusk and Dawn brings you a solid boost to your Holy Power spenders and some valuable damage reduction. Don't worry about tracking this as the buff isn't significant enough to impact your rotation or spell priorities.
10% of all healing done to you from other sources heals nearby allies
Value: Low
Lightbearer seems decent until you realize it only transfers healing done to you from OTHER sources. This makes it useless in solo healing content and a very small boost to your healing in raid.
Divine Shield heals you and may be cast while Forbearance is active
Value: Medium
This is another prot paladin talent but being able to Bubble any time and not worry about Forebearance is a decent quality of life / emergency talent. Most of the time it will be useless but ocassionally it will save the day.
Spec Tree Talents
First Talents
Heals an ally or damages an enemy
Value: Required
Holy Shock is Holy Paladin's most important ability in most builds, providing both Holy Power and spot healing. It's reasonably mana efficient and has a ton of talents and interactions that increase its strength.
Increases Word of Glory and Light of Dawn's crit chance by up to 30%
Value: Required
With the removal of Glimmer and more power being placed in our spenders, this is an obvious pickup for every build.
Heal up to 5 injured allies within a 15 yard frontal cone
Value: Required
As your only other healing Holy Power spender and a core talent, Light of Dawn is a must pick for all builds and should be used over Word of Glory any time 4 or more allies are injured and within range. Make sure you remember this is a conal heal so it has to be aimed at the players you want to heal!
Holy Shock now has 2 charges
Value: Required
Having a second charge of Holy Shock opens up our spell priority and rotation a lot as we no longer have to hit Holy Shock on cooldown. You should generally still be using Holy Shock as much as possible but it at least lessens the throughput punishment if you forget to press it as soon as one charge is available.
Empowers your chosen aura for 8 seconds
Value: Required
Aura Mastery with Devotion Aura active is our major group wide Damage Reduction talent and is definitely required for all content types.
Your Mastery is now based on how close the target is to you or your beacon
Value: Required
This is a talent Paladins have been begging to return for a long time now as it allows us to get full value out of our mastery on both ranged and melee, instead of being pigeonholed into always healing melee for effective healing.
Casting Flash of Light or Holy Light generates 1 Holy Power
Value: Medium
This talent is core for casting heavy builds and relatively useless for the other. For the builds that do run this, it will make hard casting one of your main sources of Holy Power generation.
Lay on Hands' cooldown is reduced by 1.5 sec per Holy Power spent and restores mana
Value: Medium
On average this will reduce your Lay on Hands cooldown by a little more then half and restores a small amount of mana. Overall not very impactful but can definitely be a "turn the tides" talent under the right circumstances.
LoD increases the healing of your next WoG, up to 45%
Value: Low (M+), Medium (Raid)
With Light of Dawn almost never being used in Mythic+, this talent will really only ever see play in raid as a passive boost to your spot healing.
Holy Shock, Holy Light, and Flash of Light critical healing increased by 20%
Value: Medium
Awestruck provides us with a solid increase to our spot healing when we crit, but overall won't have much impact on our throughput.
Your FoL heals for 50% more when cast on your Beacon / HL splashes healing on nearby allies
Value: Medium / Medium
This talent either buffs your Flash of Light or Holy Light so you should pick whichever you'll be casting more of in whatever build you're running. Most builds will default to Resplendent Light, as you'll want to use that with your Divine Favor buffed spells.
The cooldown of Aura Mastery is reduced / Aura Mastery increases healing received by 10%
Value: Medium / Low
Unwavering Spirit can be very strong if the damage patterns of a specific fight or dungeon work well with 2.5 minute Aura Mastery. Meanwhile, Protection of Tyr is pretty much useless except for very niche situations in raid where there was unhealable damage consistently going out DURING Aura Mastery DR. Overall this is generally a situational talent you'd only pick up for something specific that it countered.
Grant an absorb to an ally / Fires a beam that damages enemies and heals allies
Value: Required
Barrier of Faith provides a large amount of single target healing with a nearly 80% uptime shield that constantly refreshes its power based on your Holy Shock, Flash of Light or Holy Light effective healing. Alternatively, Holy Prism brings a strong instant spot heal or group heal based on if you cast it on an enemy or ally. Both of these options are good and which one you decide to run will come down to what your build emphasizes and what your playstyle preference is.
Consuming Infusion of Light reduces the cooldown of Holy Shock by 1 second
Value: Medium
This talent will either be very strong or relatively useless, depending on the build you're running. It's core to the rotation of Infusion Caster builds, but instant cast crusader builds won't be hard casting much outside of Hand of Divinity uses.
Middle Talents
While above 80% health, Holy Shocks healing is increased but at a price
Value: Medium
Light of the Martyr has been redesigned for The War Within and now increases the healing of Holy Shock. Sadly it currently triggers from overhealing as well, which loses it most of its value by making you work too hard to clear your absorb. Watch this video if you're wondering why it's used on top logs despite being an effective healing loss.
Judgment has a 30% chance to cast Consecration at the target's location
Value: High (M+) / Medium (Raid)
This will give you a fair amount of free damage in Mythic+ as it doesn't count towards the standard consecration cap of 1 (it's in addition to your manual Consecrate cast). As for raid, it's free damage and will double dip your Golden Path healing if you're talented into it, so it's still a solid pickup.
Your next HL or FoL is empowered / Your next 2 Holy Lights are stronger and instant cast
Value: High / Medium
While Hand of Divinity has great synergy with Tyr's Deliverance, Divine Favor will give you more consistently strong buffed casts so your default in most cases should be Divine Favor. When running Divine Favor, you'll generally want to default to using it on Holy Light with an infusion proc. When running Hand of Divinity, always group it with Tyr's Deliverance.
When an ally with your Beacon of Light is damaged below 30% health, they gain an absorb
Value: Medium
There's a lot of good to be said about an absorb that triggers at low health on priority targets, but it's not a very large shield. Also you should only ever run this if you're also running Beacon of Faith / Virtue as they both greatly increase the power of Saved by the Light.
Allies with Beacon of Light receive 5% less damage
Value: Required
This talent is required for all builds as it provides a significant amount of DR via your beacons, giving you a strong AoE dr every 15 seconds with Virtue or a consistent 5% DR on your two Beacon targets with Faith.
15% of Holy Shocks overhealing is converted into an absorb shield
Value: Situational (M+) / Required (Raid)
Making our most core healing ability convert its overhealing in an absorb is just about the best thing you could ask for in raid. While its strength in raid is obvious, much of the time in M+ you'll be using Holy Shocks offensively and rarely using it on high health allies, making this talent lose a lot of value in solo healing content.
SotR deals extra damage and every 5 casts makes your next WoG or LoD free
Value: Required (M+) / Low (Raid)
In Mythic+, there isn't a single better talent you could ask for. This not only provides you with significantly higher active priority damage on fights with low healing requirements, but it also provides you with free healing spenders even when spending on damage. In raid, you should never be spending your Holy Power offensively so this talent will see no meaningful use.
WoG and LoD have a chance to reduce the cost of your next Holy Light, CS, or Judgment
Value: Low
In its current state Liberation provides almost 0 value and would only ever be taken as a means to access another talent locked behind it like Righteous Judgment.
Beacon of Light transfers an additional 10% of the amount healed
Value: Required
This may be one of the strongest talents in the entire tree, increasing all the healing funneled into your Beacon targets. There isn't a single build this shouldn't be taken with.
Spending Holy Power has a 25% chance to trigger Saved by the Light's shield
Value: High
This talent is deceptively strong, considering how much Holy Power we will be spending in The War Within playstyle. It provides a huge amount of safety to your two Beacon targets when running Faith and when spec'd into virtue simply provides a lot of free throughput.
Increases the range of Light of Dawn to 25 / 40 yards
Value: Situational
While this should rarely be taken in M+ because you should always spend your holy power on WoG for healing, you'll likely want at least one point in this in raid so you have a lot of consistency with getting full value from Light of Dawn.
Infusion of Light increases FoL healing by 20%, or makes HL and Judgment refund mana
Value: Medium
For any build that makes heavy use of Holy Light or Flash of light this will be a very strong pickup, but it's also a solid source of mana regeneration for the instant cast melee builds as well. Overall a decent talent worth taking if you need more mana efficiency.
Holy Shock and Judgment have an 8% increased critical strike chance
Value: Required
Every build wants Holy Shock and Judgment crits, regardless of if it's just to make them hit harder or to guarantee more Infusion procs. Divine Glimpse gives us just that, making it a required pickup for all situations.
Light of the Martyr increases Holy Shock's healing by up to 15% more and heals you below 70% hp
Value: Medium
This talent is essential to what makes Light of the Martyr so powerful, make sure if you're running LotM that you pick this up as well.
Judgment, HL and FoL have a chance to increase the healing of your next Holy Shock
Value: Medium
This talent is decent for builds that use a lot of Holy Light and Flash of Light, but otherwise is pretty weak compared to the other options in this tier of talents so it's unlikely to see much play in builds that don't cast frequently.
Final Talents
Gain a second Beacon but reduce their healing by 30% / Beacon 5 allies for 8 seconds
Value: Required
Virtue and Faith took turns being meta in Dragonflight both in Mythic+ and Raid and I expect the same from The War Within. Which one you run depends on damage patterns but as a default, I generally recommend Faith for raid and Virtue for dungeons. Watch this video to learn more about Faith vs Virtue in raid.
Judgment empowers your next WoG to automatically activate an empowered LoD
Value: Low (M+) / High (Raid)
Empyrean Legacy will be fairly valueable in raid where the majority of your Light of Dawns will get full value, but in Mythic+ it will be a niche pickup for stacked AoE damage fights since otherwise most of your free Light of Dawns will be wasted.
Hammer of Wrath heals based on damage. FoL, HL, and Judgment crits reset its cooldown
Value: Medium
Veneration is a decent talent, but with its current tuning is unlikely to compete with the other tier 3 talent options. If it gets buffed it may see some play, which would be awesome because throwing your hammer at an enemy and having it burst heal your group is always fun
Increases your damage, healing and crit by 15% for 20 sec / Crusader Strike and Judgment heal nearby allies
Value: Required
Avenging Wrath has been Holy Paladins core throughput cooldown since its inception. A lot of Holy Paladins throughput revolves around managing and timing this cooldown well by balancing frequent use and having it available for dangerous moments. Meanwhile, Avenging Crusader offers an alternative to the standard "wings" by providing a smaller cooldown that converts your damage dealt to healing, removing the need for much target selection while in cooldowns.
Heals nearby allies every second for 20 seconds and increases healing taken from HS, HoL and FoL
Value: Low
This Artifact ability from Legion was reintroduced in Dragonflight, and has undergone a lot of tuning unfortunately most of which recently have been nerfs, leaving it in an embarassingly weak position going into The War Within.
Judgment has a reduced mana cost and now heals you
Value: High
As a new talent introduced this expansion, it doesn't seem very impactful but the mana saved is actually very significant due to how much more Judgment is used in TWW playstyle so it's a great pickup for consistency in mana drain as well as providing some free passive healing.
Crusader Strike reduces the cooldown of Holy Shock and Judgment by 1.5 seconds
Value: High
The Crusader's Might talent is no stranger to Holy Paladins, and with the value increasing in TWW to affect both Judgment and Holy Shock, it will be a solid pickup for any build.
Wings is now 25 seconds and reduces the cooldown of HS by 50% / Holy Power spenders grant 1 stack. At 15 stacks, your next Judgment activates Wings for 12 seconds
Value: Low / High
Sanctified Wrath in its current state is a fairly weak increase to an already weakened cooldown and as such is unlikely to see any play. Awakening, on the other hand, is stronger then ever as a 1 point talent and can now be controlled via Judgment rather than being an rng proc.
HS and CS refund some of their Mana and deal more damage
Value: Medium
Reclamation will provide a lot of mana return for any core build, but in general will provide a fairly small amount of healing throughput so you should only run this if you find yourself in need of mana consistency. Unfortunately with the current state of Hpal mana efficiency, most builds will have to run this.
Spending Holy Power grants you 1% haste per finisher for 12 seconds, stacking up to 5 times
High
Holy Paladins have never been one to scoff at haste talents, and with its recent buffs, the 5% haste is really strong. The downside at the moment is that in order to access this talent you have to also talent into Tyr's Deliverance which is barely even a button worth pressing with how nerfed it has become.
After casting Wings or Divine Toll, your next 2 Holy Shocks cast 2 additional times
Value: Required
Rising Sunlight is a massive boost to our spot healing, providing you with a huge amount of spot healing every time you use your cooldowns. This is one of the best talents Holy Paladin has and as such should be in every meta build.
Holy Shock has a 12% chance to refund a charge when cast and increases its healing by 10%
Value: High
With how core Holy Shock is to Holy Paladin, there is no world in which this talent wouldn't be strong. This is definitely a good pickup, however that can be said about all of our capstones so you may not see this played in every build.
Rotate through a unique series of buffs / Your auras heal 3 allies every 2 sec
Value: High / Low
With the rework in The War Within, Blessing of Summer is now a personal damage ability that converts your healing into dps. Assuming all the bugs get fixed by expansion release, it will be one of our main sources of damage in both M+ and raid, especially on Single Target. Learn more about how to min/max your seasons in the Blessing of the Seasons playstyle section. Merciful Auras is a very mid talent that should only ever be taken is you want to pad healing meters, not for actual progression.
Infusion of Light has 1 additional charge and is 50% more powerful
Value: Situational
Inflorescence is a good source of consistent Infusion procs, increased spot healing power, mana regen, and passive healing through Judgment. That being said, it is a much better for a casting heavy build compared to a regular build, but there aren't really any viable casting builds at the moment so Inflo probably won't see much use.
Casting HS, FoL or HL on targets affected by Tyr's extends the duration of your Tyr's
Value: Medium
Any build that runs Tyr's Deliverance will definitely want this as well, as it extends the duration of Tyr a significant amount for each Holy Shock, Flash of Light or Holy Light cast on affected targets. DO NOT FORGET you have to cast these abilities on players with the Tyr's Deliverance buff to get the extension.
Hero Tree Talents
Herald of the Sun
Holy Prism or Barrier of Faith cause your next 2 HP spenders to apply Dawnlight, dealing damage or healing over 8 sec
Dawnlight is a relatively small source of damage or healing by itself. Its real power comes from the final talent Suns Avatar which creates beams between yourself and your Dawnlights that deal constant ticking damage to any mobs that pass through.
Every 5 sec, your Dawnlight is increased by 5% / During Dawnlight, your spenders are increased by 5%
Morning Star is generally the preferred talent in Mythic+ due to its out of combat value, while Gleaming Rays will be the go to in raid. Don't worry about tracking either of these, just let the passive buffs do their thing!
Adds an additional HoT to Word of Glory and changes its spell name to Eternal Flame
Eternal Flame is basically just an empowered Word of Glory (heals upfront for the same amount but also adds a HoT effect), which makes it an extremely attractive pick for Mythic+ due to how much we utilize Word of Glory.
Critical Strike chance of Holy Shock and Light of Dawn increased by 5%
Increased Crit on Holy Shock and Light of Dawn not only means more healing, but also more infusion procs, and more Sun Sear (Hero Talent) procs.
Dawnlight slows enemies and speeds up allies / Increases move speed when dropped below 35% hp (once per min)
Neither of these talents will have much impact in PvE settings, but the better of the two is definitely Illumine as it will provide consistent mobility to your group during high throughput moments.
Your spells have a chance to increase your next Holy Shock by 200% / Dawnlight leaves an Eternal Flame or Greater Judgment when it expires
There isn't much to love about Lingering Radiance as its effects often go unused, but Blessing of An'she provides a sporatic, strong boost to your spot healing or damage making it the default pickup on this node.
HS and LoD crits leave a small HoT on the target
Sun Sear will have much more impact than Mythic+ since we rarely cast Light of Dawn in dungeons. Don't worry about tracking this HoT as it's fairly small, just enjoy the nice passive healing boost!
After you cast Holy Prism or Barrier of Faith, gain Divine Purpose
This talent allows us to get our Dawnlights out quickly after casting Holy Prism or Barrier of Faith which is very important if you have Wings available or Awakening stacks.
Your Haste is increased by 2% for 12 sec each time you apply Dawnlight
Haste is extremely important early in expansions when secondary stats are low so this talent will be especially valuable in this first season of The War Within.
LoD and HS have a 15% chance to cast again at 30% effectiveness
Again this is another talent which will find much more value in raid compared to Mythic+ due to the how little we cast Light of Dawn in dungeons, but it's still very strong for both content types since Holy Shock has regained a lot of power this expansion.
During Wings, you link with your Dawnlights, radiating damage or healing to anyone that passes through the beams
This spell may not be the most intuitive and still is a little buggy, there is a lot to love here. These beams feel INCREDIBLE in raid, and really strong in Mythic+. The more your group stacks the more powerful your burst healing will be, which is why the value you get from this will vary based on your groups positioning. Make sure to pay attention to the beams whenever you're in Wings, and to line them up to get the most value.
Lightsmith
Will the Light to coalesce and become manifest as a Holy Armament, wielded by your target
Holy Bulwark and Sacred Weapon are the core to what makes Lightsmith powerful. Holy Bulwark brings you consistently strong shielding power for your allies, while Sacred Weapon brings the damage. Together they make for a very strong support style Hero spec.
Increases your armor by 5% and Intellect by 1% / Increases your Stamina by 3% and causes your Holy Power abilities to sometimes splash healing
This may be the most annoying Hero talent we have, as it's a weapon enchantment that has to be reapplied every hour and has a 2 second cast time. Your default should generally be Sanctification although the difference between these is very minimal. Make sure you use a weakaura like this so you never forget to keep these applied.
If you bestow an Armament upon an ally, you also gain its benefits
This talent makes it so you always want to choose someone other than yourself as your Armament target. Typically during trash you'll want to use Holy Bulwark on tanks, and during AoE damage you should apply it to your squishiest dps. For Sacred Weapon it really doesn't matter who you use it on as long as it's a dps, it doesn't have any increased power based on spec or class so don't overthink it.
For each Holy Power ability cast, your next Consecration deals more damage / Holy Power abilities increase the damage of your next CS by 120%
This talent node is incredibly strong and is where a significant amount of the strength of Lightsmith comes from. If you run regular wings you'll always want to take Divine Guidance, whereas if you run Avenging Crusader, you'll want Blessed Assurance.
When an Armament fades from you, the cooldown of Lay on Hands is reduced by 15 sec and you gain Infusion of Light
Between this and Tirion's Devotion, Lay on Hands will have an incredibly low cooldown, making it something that should be used far more aggressively than ever before.
Your spells have a chance to manifest a Holy Armament for a nearby ally / The cooldown of Holy Armaments is reduced by 20%
Even though the control from Forewarning is nice to have, Divine Inspiration should always be the default pick as it provides significantly more weapon procs compared to Forewarning. You also save a lot of GCDs, which is important with the spec being so GCD heavy already.
Reduces the cooldown of Rebuke / Redistribute health with you Bulwark wielding ally
Authoritative Rebuke is a niche pickup that will help only slightly with interrupts and should really only be taken if you're worried about dying to Tempered in Battle. On the other side of things, Tempered in Battle is very strong but can also be very dangerous since it can redistribute your health right before a damage event which could get you killed so watch for those interactions when running this talent.
The effect of your active Aura is increased by 33% on targets with your Armaments
Nothing much of interest here, you basically give 1% extra damage reduction to players with your Armaments + another 3% during Aura Mastery. Another pretty useless talent but it's better than nothing.
Consuming Infusion of Light reduces the cooldown of Holy Armaments by 3 sec
Most Lightsmith builds will also run our capstone talent Inflorescence of the Sunwell because of this talent. The more Infusions you consume, the more Weapons you get!
Judgment crits cause a shockwave, healing allies at the target's location
Yet another talent that increases Judgment's power, making it an incredibly satisfying button to press. Don't worry about playing around this much but do keep in mind that it will be stronger in melee heavy groups since the radius of the shockwave is relatively small.
Wings summons an additional Sacred Weapon, and during Wings your Sacred Weapon echoes the effects of your Holy Power abilities
Our final Lightsmith talent is definitely the strongest, adding a lot of increased power to Wings via echoing Holy Power spenders and damage from Weapons.
Core Build - Lightforged Avenger
The Lightforged Avenger build is centered around the talent Avenging Crusader, creating a very fast paced melee healer playstyle where most of your healing is done via smart healing. This will be the go to build for raid and M+, I highly suggest watching this video guide to understand the way this build plays. Please note the stat priority for this build is different from the standard stat priority due to the strength of crit from Hammer and Anvil. For raid you'll want Haste > Crit > Mastery/Vers, while in M+ you'll want Haste > Crit > Vers > Mastery in M+ (at 14+ key levels you'll need to start prioritizing vers > crit to survive one shot mechanics).
Mythic+ Version
Copy Talent Build String
*Use this weakaura to remind you to swap off of Improved Cleanse in dungeons where it isn't needed. Fist of Justice is usually your best options to run in its place.
This build is centered around the talent Avenging Crusader (AC), which will give you two different spell priorities based on whether you have Avenging Crusader active or not. Your rotational priority during Avenging Crusader will look like this:
1. Judgment 2. Crusader Strike (with blessed assurance) 3. Spend Holy Power (withOUT blessed assurance) 4. Crusader Strike (withOUT blessed assurance) 5. Holy Shock
Your rotational priority outside of Avenging Crusader should be this:
1. Virtue before AoE damage 2. Keep your Consecration down during trash 3. Spend Holy Power (don't overcap) 4. Judgment 5. Crusader Strike 6. Holy Prism 7. Holy Shock 8. Hammer of Wrath
Only use Holy Light only with Divine Favor + Infusion as needed for spot healing.
Raid Version
Copy Talent Build String
In raid this build plays very similar to M+ with your rotational priority during Avenging Crusader looking like this:
1. Judgment 2. Crusader Strike (with blessed assurance) 3. Spend Holy Power (withOUT blessed assurance) 4. Crusader Strike (withOUT blessed assurance) 5. Holy Shock
Your rotational priority outside of Avenging Crusader should be this:
1. Holy Prism 2. Spend Holy Power (don't overcap) 3. Judgment 4. Holy Shock 5. Crusader Strike 6. Hammer of Wrath 7. Consecration
Alternate Build - The Solar Crusade
The Solar Crusade is an aggressive, powerful, burst healing melee build. In Mythic+ you spend Holy Power on Eternal Flame for healing and Shield of the Righteous for damage, while in raid you'll use both Eternal Flame and Light of Dawn depending on if you want AoE or spot healing. It generally runs Beacon of Virtue in keys to carry burst AoE healing, and Beacon of Faith in raid for consistent throughput.
Mythic+ Version
Copy Talent Build String
*Use this weakaura to remind you to swap off of Improved Cleanse in dungeons where it isn't needed. When it's not needed, talent Fist of Justice instead.
The Solar Crusade is our most powerful and versatile build in Mythic+. It plays very smooth and generally speaking your rotational priority will look like this:
1. Virtue before AoE damage 2. Keep your Consecration down at all times 3. Holy Prism 4. Spend Holy Power (don't overcap) 5. Holy Shock 6. Judgment 7. Crusader Strike 8. Hammer of Wrath
Only use Holy Light only with Divine Favor + Infusion as needed for spot healing.
Raid Version
Copy Talent Build String
In raid this build plays very similar to M+, with the main difference being Beacon of Faith instead of Virtue. Remember you can opt into Virtue instead of Faith for a bit more hps but you lose out on a ton of mana efficiency and priority healing, never forget that more hps does not always mean it's better for your raid team. This isn't to say Virtue is never better in raid, but you just want to think about it on a fight by fight basis and determine if your raid team could use more priority healing and increased mana efficiency (you can give Winter to other healers when you run Faith), or generic AoE healing.
The biggest question I get about raid playstyle is what should you spend your Holy Power on: WoG or LoD? To answer this, I made this video as the explanation is a bit nuanced. As for your rotational priority, it should look like this:
1. Holy Prism 2. Spend Holy Power (don't overcap) 3. Holy Shock 4. Judgment 5. Crusader Strike 6. Hammer of Wrath 7. Consecration
Only use Holy Light only with Divine Favor + Infusion as needed for spot healing.
At this point your character's builds should be set up, so now let's take a look at gear and general setup.
Next: Stats, Gear & Setup
